


A Helping Hand

by eClair23



Category: Kingdom Keepers - Ridley Pearson
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26794471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eClair23/pseuds/eClair23
Summary: Finn and Maybeck help Philby tell Willa he kissed Charlene...set during "Power Play" right before Willa crosses over and gets stuck in SBS.
Relationships: Isabella "Willa" Angelo/Dell Philby
Kudos: 3





	A Helping Hand

Maybeck and Finn leaned against Philby’s couch cushions, Xbox controllers firmly in hand, their thumbs moving at lightning speed. This had to be the most competitive game of Lego Star Wars ever played. Philby leaned against the couch on the floor, texting. Not that the other two boys could see that, of course. Right? Wrong. Maybeck shot up, catching sight of the name on Philby’s phone: Willa. He couldn’t resist a chance to tease Philby.

“Whatcha looking at, Philibuster?” Maybeck asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Philby didn’t look up. “None of your business, Terrance.”

Maybeck paused the game, pretending to be offended. “Hang on. How come you won’t tell me?”

“Because,” Philby explained slowly, looking Maybeck in the eye, “you act like this.”

Finn snorted. “You’re texting Willa, aren’t you.”

Philby flushed red, putting his phone down safely under his knee, where neither of the other boys could reach it and send something embarrassing to Willa. “Why does it matter?”

“You guys are adorable,” Finn teased. “Why won’t you just tell her you like her, man?”

“I–” his voice faltered. “I just want to be sure.”

“That you like her, or that she likes you back?”

“The second.”

Finn smirked. “Considering she’s texting you back within seconds, I think you’re good to go.”

“I’m synthesizing the available data, Finn. Stop reading over my shoulder, would you?”

“No,” Maybeck replied. At least he was honest.

“Does she know you kissed Charlene?” Finn asked.

Philby rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, um, no. Not yet.”

“You haven’t told her?”

“It’s not like it’s come up!” Philby said, defensive. “Besides, how am I supposed to tell her something like that? Every time I try, my words get all mixed up. I mean obviously I don’t like Charlene… like that. She’s great, but not my type.” 

Maybeck cut back in. “Philbo’s in looooooove,” he crooned.

“Will you cut it out!” Philby shouted.

His mom called from the other room, “Everything all right, Dell?”

“Yeah, Mum, everything’s fine!” He yelled back. 

“Philby, you gotta tell her.” Finn tried to be a little gentler than Maybeck in his approach.

Philby groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Help me.”

Finn blinked, surprised Philby was accepting his help. “Seriously?”

“Do I look like I know what I’m doing, Finn?”

Finn didn’t answer his question. If he was honest, it was odd to see Philby not knowing what he was doing. Finn wasn’t used to being the one with all the information. “Okay, I’ll help you. First off, call her. Don’t text her.”

“Why not?”

“Amanda says it shows you care if you call instead of texting,” Finn shrugged. 

Maybeck snorted. The other two boys ignored him.

“Okay, so I call her. What do I say?”

The boys spent the next few minutes drafting Philby’s speech, with occasional input from Maybeck (typically of the snarky variety, but he did have a few surprising bits of insight). When they had finished, the two other boys resumed their game, pretending not to eavesdrop.

Philby texted Willa: can I call you really quick?

She responded quickly: sure :)

He took a deep breath, hitting the call button before he could back out of it. He pressed the phone to his ear.

“Hey, Dell!”

“Hey, Wills.” Maybeck raised an eyebrow. Wills? He was definitely going to have to bring that up later.

“What’s up? Is everything okay? Do you need us to cross over tonight? Because I can, I just need to make sure I get all this homework done first…”

Philby interrupted her. “Everything’s fine. And no, we’re not crossing over until we’ve figured out how to fix the server. I, um,” he consulted his notes. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

She was quiet for a moment before responding. “Okay, shoot.” In her room, Willa hugged her teddy bear, Mr. Totems, to herself tightly. Was he about to finally ask her out? She’d been hoping he would for months, but she was worried she’d been misreading his texts. They’d seemed flirty, but she honestly couldn’t tell. Charlene had also voted flirty, but Willa had been hesitant to get her hopes up. Until now. 

“Um, so you know Charlene was–was under a spell?”

Her heart sank. He wasn’t asking her out. He just wanted to talk Keeper business. She was frustrated with herself for getting her hopes up. “Yeah.” She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

He blurted it out. “I kissed her.”

“What?” She blinked away tears, squeezing Mr. Totems tighter, as if doing so could hold her together.

“To break the spell.”

Willa was quiet on the other side of the line. He thought maybe she had hung up. He checked–she hadn’t. “Um, Willa?”

She sighed. “Why are you telling me this?” 

“I wanted you to–to hear it from me. Instead of from the others.”

“Oh.” The last bit of hopefulness in her heart evaporated. She’d hoped maybe he was telling her because he liked her. Obviously, that was stupid.

“I’m really sorry. It’s not like we had much of a choice.”

“Why couldn’t Maybeck do it?”

Philby glanced over at Maybeck. “He was going to,” he said through gritted teeth, “but he wimped out at the last second. Remember ice cream?” Maybeck rolled his eyes as if to say “let it go already.”

“That’s what that was.”

He breathed a laugh. “Yeah.” 

“Thank you for telling me.”

“No problem. And Willa?”

“Yeah?”

“I really am sorry. I know we’ve been getting closer lately, and I don’t want to mess that up.” He tangled and untangled his fingers in his lap, holding the phone between his shoulder and his ear. His hands were far too shaky to hold the phone without her hearing the turbulence.

Her heart soared. He’d noticed, too. “Me either.” 

“So are we okay?”

“Yeah, of course. See you tomorrow?”

“Can’t wait.” He grinned from ear to ear. 

“Bye, Dell.”

“Bye.” He hung up, letting out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

Finn clapped him on the back, settling himself on the floor next to him. “Nice work, man.”

Philby looked at him, then over at Maybeck. “Really?”

Maybeck nodded. “I hate to say it, but you nailed it.”

“I’m going to text Charlie and ask her to make sure Willa’s okay. She sounded sort of… sad, I think.”

“Dude, she’s totally into you, of course she’s disappointed Charlie was under a spell and not her!”

Philby shrugged. “Her and me both.” Upon realizing the implications of what he’d just said, he blushed profusely, sending the other boys into a fit of laughter (which he eventually joined in on). “I can’t believe I said that out loud.”

Maybeck wiped away tears of mirth. “Me either.”

“Not a word of that leaves this room, okay? I’m serious.”

“Fine, fine. Just let us know when you finally do kiss her.” Finn settled back onto the couch. “Until then, Star Wars?” he offered Philby his remote, squeezing his shoulder. “You’ve done plenty of synthesizing for the day. Time for a break.”

Philby nodded, grabbing the remote.


End file.
